Democratic debates 2019: 'Kool-Aid,' 'Asian man who likes math,' 'Clorox the Oval Office' and other zingers from 2nd debate night
Ten presidential primary candidates came out swinging right from the get-go during the second night of the second Democratic debates Wednesday, and the zingers started flying even before opening statements got underway.
Here are some of the jabs, one-liners and gaffs from the stage that received big responses:
Joe Biden's 'Go easy on me, kid' comment
As California Sen. Kamala Harris walked out on stage, she was greeted by former Vice President Joe Biden, who quietly said to her, "Go easy on me, kid."
The moment was picked up by his mic and came after a contentious moment at the first debate between the two, which was followed by a month of back-and-forth sparring over Biden's record and Harris' history as a young prosecutor.
Harris' campaign took exception to the former veep's comment. Harris' press secretary retweeted:
Andrew Yang's 'Asian man who likes math' comment
During his opening statement, the entrepreneur received a big reaction from the crowd when he said, "We need to do the opposite of much of what we're doing right now, and the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math."
Cory Booker's 's---hole countries' comment
During a discussion on immigration, the New Jersey senator took the opportunity to reference a Trump-ism from earlier this year that sparked a firestorm of controversy.
"That's playing into what the Republicans want, to pit some immigrants against other immigrants," Booker said. "Some are from s---hole countries and some are from working countries. We need to reform this whole immigration system and begin to be the country that says everyone has worth and dignity and this should be a country that honors everyone."
Kirsten Gillibrand's 'Um,' 'Clorox the Oval Office' comments
Immediately after that 's---hole countries' zinger from Booker, CNN's Don Lemon turned to Gillibrand to ask for her response. But in that moment, the New York senator seemed to be caught off guard.
"Um--," she said, to much laughter from the crowd, before she recovered.
Later in the debate, Gillibrand got a big audience response when she said, "The first thing that I'm going to do when I'm president is I'm going to Clorox the Oval Office."
Joe Biden's 'Excuse me, the future president' comment, followed by Cory Booker's 'Kool-Aid' comment
Another moment of Booker and Biden slugging it out came when the two contenders were discussing criminal justice reform. As they were arguing over who had passed what reform bill, the former vice president sort of stumbled and seemed to, jokingly, endorse Booker for president.
"The fact is that the bills that the president -- excuse me, the future president, that the senator is talking about, are bills that were passed years ago and they were passed overwhelmingly," Biden said.
When CNN's Jake Tapper asked Booker for his response, Booker didn't hold back, starting with, "Well, first of all I’m grateful that he endorsed my presidency already" to much laughter from the audience.
Booker later followed with another zinger as he and Biden were arguing over comparing their records of handling crime bills.
"There's a saying in my community that you're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know the flavor. You need to come to the city and see the reforms we put in place," said Booker, who is a former mayor of Newark.
And it to bring it full circle, the official Kool-Aid Twitter account jumped into the fray with this tweet:
